Ruin of the Zodiac
by The One True Scorpion
Summary: After a chance snowball fight with a strange woman in the forests of Oregon, Jack learns that there's more protecting the people of the world than just the Guardians. Meanwhile, a shift in a system we all know and adhere to brings to light that thirteen is always an unlucky number... Even for the Zodiac. Jack/OC, please R
1. Chapter 1

**Ruin of the Zodiac Chapter One: In Which One Plays Ice with Fire**

* * *

Jack Frost wasn't a big fan of the Spring Equinox.

Yeah, it was perfect slushball fight weather, and soon he'd be heading down to the southern hemisphere and having fun with the kids down there as _their_ winter arrived, but it meant that spring and summer were on their way. Being who he was, Jack Frost wasn't exactly a huge summer fan.

He let the wind carry him through the Oregon forests, bringing the early morning frost with him, making it cover the trees in a thin, intricate pattern. He'd head back to the city soon enough, but first there was something he wanted to make sure of.

He'd thought he'd seen someone in these woods.

They were a bit far away from the nearest area of population, so naturally it had sparked his curiosity. But the lack of human footprints ...there were a _lot_ of deer and rabbit prints, though... anywhere seemed to indicate that he had probably just been imagining things. He had to admit, he was a little disappointed. He'd been hoping for a little early-morning excitement. Not that he had a particular shortage of excitement, though. Now that he was a Guardian and kids weer actually believing in him, _seeing_ him (the thought still making him a bit giddy), he was having a blast.

Giving up on his search, he turned around, planning to head back to the city he had just come from. What was it called? Leighton? Yeah, that was it; not a particularly large city, but not particularly small, either. _And about to enjoy a very fun snow day,_ he thought, grinning.

That's when the girl in the yellow sweater ran by.

"Girl" might have been the wrong word. As far as he could tell, she was about a year or so older than he looked. "Young woman" might have been better. Not that he could get a good look at her. She was running very fast, with no signs of slowing down or stopping to take a breath.

_Well_. If his curiosity wasn't piqued before, it was now. "Wind," he said, beckoning for the breeze to carry him along. She was fast, but he was faster. It wasn't hard to get in front of the young woman. "So, where are you off to?" he asked, not expecting an answer. After all, she was probably too old to be a believer, and she'd made no signs of seeing him. But he couldn't help but think that she had glanced at him from under the bright scarlet beanie she was wearing. Jack found himself rambling, out of boredom most likely, as he ran his staff along the frozen ground, creating a trail of frost behind the two of them. "I mean, where'd you come from? The closest city's a bit far from here." A thought crossed his mind. "Are you a fugitive?" he asked, grinning slightly and incredulously as his lifted his and and wiggled his fingers in the universal sign for "Ooh, spooky". "Nah; you don't look like the type. Besides, I've seen kids in trouble. Heck, I've _been_ in trouble. People in trouble look behind them, don't they?" He glanced up at the sky. It was still pretty early in the morning, and the faded outline of the moon could be seen between the bare trees. "I did see a cabin a few miles back, though. Seemed empty. Did you come from there? Did you run all that way?" He let out a low whistle. "You know, have you ever considered taking up cross country? Jamie does it. They'd probably want someone like you on-"

_Thwack. _Even much later, Jack would wonder how he failed to see the handle of a spear heading for his head until it collided with him, knocking him out of the wind and into a nearby slush bank.

"Stop. _Talking._"

Jack stumbled to his feet, rubbing at the part of his head where he had been it and grimacing. The woman had stopped and turned to face him directly, allowing him to get a better look at her. Short and stocky with olive skin, she had a sharp face with wide-set eyes and a relatively flat nose. Most of her hair was covered by her hat, but the few curls that hung out of it seemed to be made of soft spun gold. On her hat was a small pin with a vaguely familiar symbol. It looked like two staffs like his shoved together at the bottom edge. She wore a thick woolen button-up sweater of the same color, unbuttoned and slung loosely over her shoulders to reveal the white oversized t-shirt and leggings she wore. Unlike Jack, she was actually wearing shoes; bright yellow winter boots that stood out in the pale winter wood. Her eyes were... red?

Jack was only focused on two things, though. One was that she had apparently pulled a freakin' golden spear out of thin air. Two was that she had hit him with it. "You can see me?" he asked.

"I could ask you the same," the young woman responded. Jack didn't quite process that.

"You. Can see. Me?" he repeated. She looked too old to be a believer... The woman rolled her eyes at his question.

"No," she snapped sarcastically. "I'm blind and got lucky. Yes, I can see you. What I want to know is, how in the deepest darkest depths of space can you see me?"

"What?"

"Humans. Can't. See. Me." Something flashed in the woman's eyes, like she was _getting_ something. Her gaze flicked from Jack's staff to his hair to the trail of frost he'd left behind them. "You... you aren't human, are you?"

Jack smirked "Well, I dunno. What exactly is your definition of 'human?'" The truth was, even after three hundred years and becoming a Guardian, the answer to _that_ question was still something he didn't know. "Actually, I'd rather not know, if you're the type to get all fakey philosophical on people. That's _never_ fun. And I would know."

The young woman shrugged. "It's simply. If you can't see me, you're not human. With a few rare exceptions. The dying under my jurisdiction, for instance. So. Who are you?"

"The one and only Jack Frost, not at your service," Jack said, smirking and dipping into an over dramatic bow. His smile fell as he straightened up. "How come you didn't know that? Only people who believe in me can see me, and they generally figure it out right away. Kids are smart that way."

"Well, I'm not a kid."

"I'll say. So who are you?" The woman still seemed to be a couple steps behind on the conversation, though.

"Jack Frost," she mused. "Same one who joined the Guardians in defeating Pitch Black the Boogeyman last Easter?"

"Uh, yeah. How'd you know?"

"It's our business to know.

She didn't smile, exactly, but her face still lit up at his answer. "Oh, goodness, well this is no. None of my people have ever met one of your people before. And none of your people have ever met one of my people. New thing for both of us, wouldn't you say? _Polý synarpastikó_!" She reached forward and grabbed his hand, shaking it. Despite the stunning lack of a smile, her eyes were wide enough to convey all the excitement in the world. They _were_ red, a deep dark crimson with a few white flecks in them aligned in a strange pattern that Jack swore he had seen some where before. "Gotta admit, much as I'm really not liking you right not, I was _really_ impressed with how you lot handled that whole mess. Le- My _friend_ wasn't. Said that it could have been done better."

"Uh... yeah," Jack repeated, this time out of confusion as he pulled his hand away from her vice-like grip. Her hands were very warm. It was uncomfortable. "I'd like to see your friend do better. Who are you again?"

The woman shook her head. "Oh, no. Why should I tell you? That's a secret. You're not even supposed to know I exist. No one is, and I'm told to keep it that way."

"Because I asked nicely and I'm incredibly likeable?"

The woman raised an eyebrow.

"Worth a shot," Jack said. "Hey, I told you my name. I think it's only fair."

"Yes, and you were a complete annoyance for this past quarter of a mile. It became impossible to ignore you."

"You hit me in the face with a spear."

"The blunt end!"

Jack threw his hands into the air. Then an idea came to him. "All right, let's make a deal. We can play a game! If you win, you go on your way. If I win, you tell me your name and who you are."

"I can't. I'm supposed to be meeting a... co-worker, you could say. I'm already late. I'm lucky they're the forgiving type."

"C'mon! It'll be fun!" The young woman hesitated.

"All right. What sort of game should we play." A small, disturbing smile passed across her face. "We could have a duel to the pain. I'm good at those."

"Yeah, pass. I had something a little different in mind." Jack bent over and scooped up a pile of the slushy snow. "I mean, you already have my name, so that puts me at an unfair advantage. So I thought we'd even the playing field a little." He formed the slush into a perfect sphere and blew on it, cooling it the point where it was no longer half liquid. "Think fast."

"What are you-" The young woman's words were cut off by a face full of snowball. Jack hotted and jump into the air. "One point for me!" he said.

"Cute," the woman said, wiping the snow off her face. Her expressions was filled with a reign-in rage. "Cheating. You're a great sport. So, how many points to win?"

"Hmm... let's say ten." The woman grinned. It wasn't a nice grin, either.

"_Tha páme gia na chásoume, ómorfo agóri_," she said. Jack raised an eyebrow.

"English, please? I mean, what you're saying... it's all Greek to me." The woman laughed.

"That's because it is Greek,_ ilíthios_." Before Jack could say another word, she ducked behind the nearest tree. Laughing, Jack scooped up another snowball and floated around the tree, lobbing it at her. Only to have it hit a rusty-looking shield. _First a spear, now a shield?_ he thought. What else could she summon? "No fair," he said, chuckling. "No weapons allowed." The woman scowled and tossed her weaponry aside.

"Fine," she conceded, stooping over and scooping up a handful of snow-slush. "This is your game, we'll play by your rules." She formed it into a slushball, clencing her other hand into a fist by her side. "You're still going to lose." She tossed the slushball at him, but he avoided it easily... only to have a much smaller slushball hit him in the forehead. "Point to me," she said.

Laughing, the snowball fight turned into an all-out snowball war, and Jack was very pleased to find that he was winning. The young woman cheated a few times, knocking a few snowballs away from her with her spear, but he wasn't complaining. It only meant more points for him. Besides, he cheated a few times as well. He just made sure to not get caught doing it.

In the end, though, it was nine-nine, and both of them weren't about to give up. Jack just narrowly avoided getting pelted with one of his opponent's snowballs. He had no idea where this second burst of determination came from; when the score was at eight-four she'd seemed resigned to failure.

Well, Jack Frost wasn't about to be literally beaten at his own game. He looked at the woman, who was staring at him defiantly. Then his gaze trailed upward. "Good game," he said.

"So you're forfeiting?" the woman asked. Jack grinned.

"Not at all." He threw the snowball. It soared above her head, making her take on an expression of irritated disbelief. "Really?" she said. "That's you're best shot?"

She didn't get in another word before the snow that had been on the branch Jack hit with his snowball fell off, falling onto her and sending her toppling forward. "Ten points!" he hooted, pumping his fist into the air. "I win!" The young woman stood up, adjusting her hat, and for a couple moments Jack was sure she was going to accuse him of cheating. But to her surprise, she was smiling. Like, _actually_ smiling.

"All right," she said, crossing her arms over her chest. "You win. And I'm not about to go back on my word. But you need to make sure you don't tell anyone. Especially the other Guardians. A friend of mine wouldn't be thrilled if she found out I spilled out, ah, little secret."

Jack raised an eyebrow as the wind carried him over. "What's so secret about your name?" The woman's smile fell.

"It's not my name, specifically. It's what it. means." She took a deep breath. "As for who I am...?" She shrugged.

"I am Aries, the Ram, the Zodiac of the Cardinal Fire and the Blesser of the early spring children. And I," she said, pointing at her wrist in a manner indicative of a pretend watch, "am late."

With that, she ran off, leaving Jack Frost standing there in the woods, very confused.

* * *

**Okay, you all probably knew she was a Zodiac before the reveal (I mean, the title is "Ruin of the Zodiac") but how many specifically figured out she was Aries? Let me know!**

**I used Google translate for the greek, so it may be a bit off, but here's the rough supposed-to-be translations:**

_**Polý synarpastikó! - Very exciting!**_  
_**Tha páme gia na chásoume, ómorfo agóri - You're going to lose, pretty boy.**_  
_**Ilíthios - Idiot**_

**Please fave and review! Also, this is my first fic, so please be gentle! I can't do the movie justice at all, but I'll try!**

**- The OTS**


	2. Chapter 2

**Ruin of the Zodiac Chapter Two: In Which An Implied Promise is Shattered**

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Aries had told him not to tell the other Guardians about who she was. So, naturally, the first thing he did was fly straight to North and tell him about the strange golden-haired young woman.

"_Zodiac?_" North's Russian-accented voice boomed throughout the workshop. The Guardian of Wonder had his arms folded over. "Are you sure that is what she said, Jack?"

Jack shrugged, deftly balancing on the crook of his staff as he faced North. "Word for word. 'Aries, the Ram, Zodiac of the Cardinal Fire and Blesser of the early spring children.'" He raised an eyebrow. "That's a lot of titles for someone no one's heard of. Do half of those even mean anything? Like, anything at all?"

"Believe it or not, yes. Aries is cardinal sign. Comes with new season. It is also one of three fire signs. Leo and Sagittarius are others." Jack had to raise his other eyebrow at this.

"Wait, are you saying she could be telling the truth?" he asked incredulously.

"Not necessarily. I am saying that if she is lying, she is very well-learned liar. But..." North paused. "It is possible she is telling truth. You say she carried a shield and spear?"

"More 'pulled them out of thin air' than actually carried them." Wincing Jack rubbed the side of his head, remembering being knocked aside like one of his snowballs. "She's got a mean swing, too. Pretty sure she's using that spear wrong though."

"Hrm," North looked deep in thought. "Jack, do you know what ruling planet of Aries is?"

"Uh, no?" At his answer, North turned around and picked up a piece of paper and a pen from off of the nearest table. Jack leaned back slightly. "Wait, is this going to be on a quiz? Because I don't see what any of this has to do with a bunch of stars in the sky." North shook his head.

"It has nothing to do with stars themselves and everything to do with their meaning," North said. "The ruling planet of Aries is _Mars_. Named after Roman god of war. And the symbol of Mars," he said, scribbling something onto paper and showing it to him, "is said to represent Mars's shield and spear." Jack examined the marking on the paper. It was a crudely scarred image of a circle with and arrow sticking out of its upper right corner. "Yeah, still confused," he said.

"Jack, this means that there is enough tying this young woman you had snowball fight with in the woods and actual mythology of Aries where I would not rule anything out. But whatever she is is not important. What is important is whether or not she poses threat to children."

Jack remembered the fury in the young woman's eyes when she has knocked him out of the wind, the anger she had harbored towards him just for talking. It had only lasted for a few minutes, but... "If she tries to hurt any kids, I'll stop her," he said determinedly.

An unfamiliar voice echoed throughout the area, a soft voice with an oddly dreamy, disconnected quality to it. "I assure you, gentleman, for all the volatility that Ram possesses in the spark that makes her, well, her... she would not be able to hurt a child even if she wanted to. None of us can."

Immediately, Jack jumped off of his staff and grabbed it before it clattered to the floor, gripping it tightly and looking around, ready to turn the speaker into an icicle, courtesy of Frost. Likewise, North had pulled out one of his sabers. The latter was looking distinctly more worried. Not that Jack could blame him. The last time an uninvited voice had spoken in the workshop, it had been Pitch Black, snuffing out almost all of the world's belief.

"Put the weapons down, please," the mysterious voice said. "I bear no arms of my own... well, actually, I do. Two of them. They're very odd." There was a distracted giggle. "So many _fingers_... I'll never get over how the others adapted to these so easily. I can understand those like Sagittarius and Aquarius, but Cancer? Capricorn? Oh, they're so _different_ from fins..."

Jack and North exchanged a confused look. "Who are you?" North called out loudly. The voice responded, but this time it was much closer, without the incorporeal echo.

"Gýrna, Sir Santa, and greet me with your own eyes."

The two of them turned around. Jack almost expected to see an exact copy of Pitch, with a malicious smile and a silver tongue. Even the very thought sent a disquieted shiver down his spine.

He did not expect, though, to see a long-legged young man with silver-tipped black hair and lilac eyes, wearing a leather jacket and a ten-foot-long blue-and-green striped scarf, smiling at something off in the distance.

Upon seeing their surprised faces, the young man lifted a pale hand and waved at them, beaming.

"_Geia sas!_"

... * ... * ... * ... * ... * ...

Meanwhile, in an abandoned farm somewhere in Greece, the perpetually unheard voices of several eternal constellations filled the air, loud enough to cause the walls to tremble.

"Someone saw you and you _told them who you were?_ Oh, I cannot believe you! We have _one_ rule, Aries! One! Rule! Even Aquarius follows it!" "Actually..." "Do you have something you want to say to me, Aquarius?" "..." "Good. Don't you go slinking off, Aries, I'm not done with you!" "Well, I'm done with you." "You've broken the one rule Capricorn's laid down, you don't get to be done! What in dark space possessed you to tell one of the _Guardians_ who you were and what you did? We've always been under the radar! Humans don't know we exist, the Man in the Moon's spirits don't know we exist, and I'm sure if Capricorn and Cancer had it their way, even the Man in the Moon wouldn't know!" "But he does know, doesn't he? So really, we were never under the radar at all. He could tell the Guardians at any moment; I just wanted it to be my choice to reveal it. I would have told him whether he had won or not!" "Yeah? Did you forget the rest of us who actually accept the rule? If there's one Zodiac, there's twelve. That's terrible reasoning." "I resent that." "_Aquarius?_ Were you... were you in on this?" "Of course. I think the rule's completely unnecessary. There are very few who can see us, and those who do probably would realize something was 'up' at first glance." "Augh! I cannot believe you!" "I, for one, welcome our new Guardian overlords." "_No one asked you, Sagittarius._"

Aries pinched the bridge of her nose, glaring at the dark-skinned woman who was twiddling with on of her dreads of hair, dreads the color of a lion's mane. "Leo," she said, trying _very very hard_ not to smash the nearest window. Or face. "I know you. You _want_ to be noticed. That's you. Just look at what you're wearing!" She jabbed a finger at Leo's sparkly white sundress, easily blinding in the late summer sun that the Zodiac of the Fixed Fire thrived in. Lucky for most humans that they couldn't be seen, then. Leo looked quite offended at her insinuation.

"So I like looking nice. So?" Aries resisted the urge to facepalm.

"There's nothing wrong with that!" she yelled loudly. "It's not that, you're missing the point! The point is, I know you better than anyone here. I know that deep down, you'd love it if you got the recognition you wanted, the recognition you know you deserved." Aries took a deep breath. "Aquarius and Sagittarius don't seem to mind. Do you?" At being mentioned, the Zodiac of the Fixed Air and the Zodiac of the Mutable Fire exchanged a glance. It was the former who spoke first.

"I stand by what I said. The rules is unnecessary. Aries is right; the Man in the Moon knows of us. We've never truly been secret," Aquarius said, brushing her hair away from her face. Most of them agreed that Aquarius was one of the prettier zodiacs. Everything about her was _curves_ and _waves_, from her physique to her gentle, shiny black hair with a single streak of almost liquid-looking silver to it, tumbling around her slender shoulders and leanly muscled arms like a waterfall. Her eyes were a clear bluish-green, and looking into them was like looking into a fairy pool from Scotland. All very fitting for the Water-Carrier. The young man next to her, with his broad shoulders and thick, salt-and-pepper hair and constantly narrowed magenta eyes, with his twitchy fingers and his long face, couldn't look more different if he tried. It was hard to get them in the same room together, though, so it wasn't always noticeable. Speaking of Sagittarius, he spoke up after Aquarius. "I can get the rule, in a weird way. I mean, we are pretty weird," he said, shrugging. "I'm just confused as to why we're so worried about the Guardians. I mean, aren't they, y'know... the good guys?"

"I..." Leo's lips pursed, and she threw her hands into the hair, rolling her goldenrod eyes as she screamed, "You know what? I'm done. I am so done with you guys! You can talk to Capricorn about this, I'm sure she'd be _thrilled_ to hear about you defying the one thing she has ever has of you." Leo spun on her bare heel and walked away, shoving passed the large man who entered.

The pale-haired young man who entered was actually very large. Big enough for two, actually. He had to stoop over in order to get into the room. The smile he showed to them, however, was that of a little boy. It was suprisingly short though, as his face fell into an uncharactersicticaly somber expression. Aries looked at him confused. "What do you need, Gemini?" The man shook his head.

"Can I ask a question?" he asked.

"I told Jack Frost who I was." Gemini blinked. "What?"

"Well, you were going to ask why Leo was so upset, weren't you?" Aries asked. Gemini shook his head. "No, actually," he clarified. "I was wondering where in the great big empty universe Pisces was. He's vanished.

* * *

**Oh, wow, I am soooooo bad at trying being funny! LOL, I feel so ridiculous. (I'm also pretty back at writing characters that aren't mine!) Anyways, I'm so happy right now! A hundred views in two days! That's so many! So many people are reading my story!**

**And I think I'll leave it up to those many readers to put two and two together, hmmm? ;)**

**Still used google for greek, so here's what it says.**

**_Gýrna - Turn  
__Geia sas! - Hello!_**

**Sorry it's not as long as the first one! Please fave and don't forget to leave a review telling me what you think!**

**- the OTS**


	3. Chapter 3

**Ruin of the Zodiac Chapter Three: In Which a Constellation is Questioned**

* * *

"Is this necessary?" Jack couldn't help but smirk as North rolled his eyes at the Zodiac's whining question.

"You broke into workshop, got past Yetis. Last person who managed to do that, tried to snuff out all hope and belief in world. I'm not taking chances."

The alleged Zodiac of Mutable Water tried yanking his wrist out of the binds that kept him in the chair, letting out a high-pitched moan when it failed. "I did promise to answer all of your questions, did I not? I even disarmed myself." He nodded two the two massive lavender fish scales that lay of North's desk. "A Zodiac does not give up their celestial weapon easily."

Bunnymund scoffed. "You call those weapons? More like oversize frisbees, if you asked me." He gave gave his boomerang a little twirl. "Now _this_ is a weapon." "Pisces" stared at the Easter Bunny, a confused expression on his face. It passed quickly, though, replaced with that same disconnected smile.

"Have you ever been hit in the face with a very sharp frisbee?" he asked. "Aries once described it as taking a blade to the head." He paused. "After the bleeding stopped, of course." Tooth winced, and an exclamation mark appeared over Sandy's head. The other three had been called as soon as the young man who claimed to be a Zodiac had been restrained and tied down by the Yetis. He hadn't put up much of a fight... not physically, at least. The minute he actually realized what was going on, "Pisces" had pitched a verbal fit, whining and moaning about how ruse it was to treat a "guest" like such. _More like intruder._"Pisces" seemed to notice their discomfort, and his eyes widened.

"Oh, no no no! It was a test of strength, a way to hone our skills. We stars and constellations actually live very boring lives, when we are not sleeping or blessing the newborns of this world. After all, what are we supposed to do when no one can s-" He suddenly yawned, cutting off his own words. "Oh,_ Lypámai_. It's almost time for me to take my name. I was actually just finishing up my shift, helping Aries with the cuspborns. Anyway, the point is, the spars we have are training."

"Training for what?" Tooth asked. "Is there something threatening the children we need to get ready for? Is that why you're here?"

"There is always something threatening others," "Pisces" said. "Especially children." His expression grew very sad for a moment. "But that's not the point. We train because we're bored. We can't directly interfere, even if we wanted to. That's not code for something, by the way." He was suddenly very direct. "We actually can't tangibly interact with humans. The closest we can get it opening doors, and only Aries and the Constants actually use those."

"Constants?"

"Virgo, Aquarius, and Gemini," he said. "Those that are always human, even in representation. They're the only ones, though. Sagittarius comes close. He's a centaur. The rest of us take on more... simple forms? I'm a fish; Cancer is a crab. Libra got the worst of us, though." His smile widened, and his eyes twinkled, as if he were thinking of some secret joke only he knew. "He's actually scales."

A floating golden image appears above Sandy's head. Well, three images. A set of weighing scales, a question mark, and the same pair of fish scales that lay of North's desk, glinting in the moonlight. "Pisces" shook his head. "The one on the left," he said. "The only fish scales around here belong to the Fish himself. Capricorn doesn't count."

"Whoa whoa whoa, wait," Jack said, raising a hand. "You guys are the _actual_ Zodiacs? Like, you're actually, a fish. I figured you guys were just human-like people symbolizing the Zodiac or something."_  
_

"We are and we aren't," Pisces said. "We are all the stars in the sky, all what the stars represent, and ourselves, with our two feet. Simultaneously, we are also, _not_ the stars, not what they represent, and not ourselves with our two feet." Jack blinked.

"English, please?" The Zodiac chuckled, shaking his head so that his silver-tipped hair fell away from his eyes.

"It's quite simple," Pisces said. "I'm an immortal, blessing, deathbed-visiting, wish-granting pair of fish who's taken the form of a human so I can move from place to place without having to be carried around everywhere. Libra's idea. Guess he was sick of being an inanimate object. So, while this form is technically me, it is not my more natural form. Likewise, the Aries you met in the woods was only Aries's human form. In reality, she would resemble most closely a golden ram. That's why she wears the sweater," he added. "Probably feels more comfortable for her."

"Is that why you wear this... thing?" Bunny asked, holding up the scarf. It had fallen on the floor when Pisces... Jack Frost was now no longer doubting the validity of his claim... had been tied down. To Jack's surprise, it had two pins on it, one on each side. One looked like a stylized H, and the other looked like the roman numeral for 2. Pisces jumped at the sight. "Oh, goodness!" he exclaimed. "Put that down! That's... that's mine and Geminis," he finished lamely, his pale face blushing. "We're both one who're supposed to be two, so we sort of... stick around each other. It's comforting. Anyways, while I am an immortal, blessing, deathbed-visiting, wish-granting pair of fish, if I were a specific pattern of stars that could only be seen from a specific point in darkspace, I'd be the constellation known as Pisces. Simultaneously, if the constellation known as Pisces were an immortal wish-granting being, it would be me. We are simultaneously the same being and separate beings. Now, can I have my scarf back?"

"Enough of scarves and riddles," North said. "There is big question we all are not asking: why you twelve not let us know about you?" Pisces shrugged, suddenly becoming very focused on his fingernails.

"Ask Capricorn. She made that rule. I suppose it was because she was concerned. When we showed as humans, we thought we would be seen by humans, and as thus, we weren't allowed to tell anyone about our true identities." He shrugged. "But we did not have to worry about it. Then you guys came along, and we had more to worry about. We're very different, as different as can be. You were chosen by the moon, and powered by the belief of people. Specifically, children. We, however, were born from the belief of people, the stories the Ancient Grecians told about us, but we're given strength by the constellations themselves. The difference made some of us paranoid, so we kept quiet. A few of us... including Aries... didn't like it, but we've all upheld our oath. That is, until you lot defeated pitch and one of us in particular decided the rules weren't worth upholding. Well, two of us. Aquarius has always hated rules. As for me? I'm neutral to the whole thing. I just realized that having someone introduce themself as a Zodiac and then not elaborate might cause worry. So I came here to bail her out of the fire, so to speak. Aries may be of the Cardinal Fire, but even she gets burnt." Bunny's eyes narrowed when the Zodiac finished his explanation.

"Well, this is all bloody well and good, bloke, but how do we know you're telling the truth?"

"Easy! Have one of your people accompany me and Aries! We've actually got an appointment in New York, a few hours from now. Maybe Jack? After all, he's already met Aries, and she at least respects him enough not to try to kill him."

"_Again._"

"you can see what it is we actually do, and I'm sure Jack's competent enough to handle us if we decide to suddenly betray you and every ideal w hold dear. So? Do we have a deal?" A long pause filled the room.

"...We have deal," North said. "If you tell me how you got into workshop.

Pisces's gaze trailed over to the large window, the light of the Moon shining in at a sharp enough angle to almost conceal the stars that were just barely visible, in a specific, familiar pattern that directly replicated the white dots in the Zodiac's lilac eyes. He said quietly, "You left the drapes open."

* * *

**I'm sorry I didn't put a chapter up earlier. The shooting in Conneticutt really hurt, and I wasn't able to write for a while. Those poor kids... :( What sick person could do something like that?**

**I should be feeling better, though. My chapters are going to be a bit short, though. Starting to think chapter 1 was a special occasion.**

**_Lypámai - Sorry_**

**Please favorite and leave a review!**


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